The 34th ASEAN Summit has acknowledged Indo-Pacific as concept for dialogue and cooperation and offered "ASEAN Centrality" as means of engagement with all stakeholders.
In what may come as a shot in the arm for India and the US, the 34th ASEAN Summit has acknowledged Indo-Pacific as concept for dialogue and cooperation and offered "ASEAN Centrality" as means of engagement with all stakeholders in Indo–Pacific from grouping such as BIMSTEC, IORA, East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus).
India is part of all these groupings. Both the US and India have been to backers of the concept along with Japan and Australia.
The summit took place in Thailand on Saturday.
The outlook said, "Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.." are "closely integrated and interconnected region, with ASEAN playing a central and strategic role" and Indo Pacific region should be a region of "dialogue and cooperation instead of rivalry" and "development and prosperity for all."
ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific is meant to "contribute to the maintenance of peace, freedom, and prosperity", it said, the grouping will "continue being an honest broker within the strategic environment of competing interests", a line which will not go unnoticed in Bejing which sees the concept with suspicion.
It elucidated several areas of cooperation from Maritime to connectivity to economic. On Martine front, it mentioned UNCLOS OR United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and "freedom of navigation and overflight", which been reiterated by backers of Indo Pacific concept in the face of increasingly aggressive China.
India has been the backer of concept with PM Modi giving New Delhi's vision for it twice - at the Maldivian Parliament earlier this month and last month at the Shangri La Dialogue.
Talking about ASEAN at during his speech at Shangri La Dialogue, PM Mentioned it 22 times and said, "ASEAN has been and will be central to the future" of Indo-Pacific.
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